Armando Giovanni Iannucci (
) (born 28 November 1963, Glasgow
) is a
Scottish
comedian, writer, director, performer and radio
producer.He has been described by
The Daily Telegraph as "the hardman
of political satire".
Early life
Iannucci's
father, Armando (Snr), is from Naples
, Italy
, while his
mother is from Glasgow, Scotland, where
Iannucci was born. His father, who came to Scotland in 1950,
ran a pizza factory. Armando has two brothers and a sister. In his
teens he thought seriously about becoming a Roman Catholic priest.
Iannucci
was educated at St Peter's Primary School, St. Aloysius' College,
Glasgow, the University of Glasgow
, and University College, Oxford
, where he read English gaining an MA in 1986. He
abandoned graduate work on 17th-century religious language with
particular reference to
Milton's
Paradise Lost, to pursue his
career in comedy.
Career
Despite his involvement in many facets of British comedy as a
producer, writer and performer, Iannucci has remained relatively
unknown amongst the British public. His projects include
Smokehammer, a web-based project with Chris Morris, the
short-lived topical satire
Gash, as well as three
programmes for
BBC Radio 3, including
Mobiles Off!, a 20-minute segment on classical
concert-going etiquette. As well as television and radio work, he
also wrote a book in 1997 entitled
Facts and Fancies,
compiling some articles from his newspaper columns, which was
turned into a
BBC Radio 4 series. A
little-known radio series called
Scraps With Iannucci
followed late in 1998, in which Iannucci used his tape-fiddling
skills to present a review of the year.
On the Hour
Iannucci has an extensive history in British radio and television.
First receiving widespread fame in the early 1990s as the producer
for
On the Hour and then
The Day Today, he received
critical acclaim for both his own talents as a writer and a
producer, and for first bringing together such comics as
Chris Morris,
Richard Herring,
Stewart Lee,
Peter
Baynham and
Steve Coogan. The
members of this group went on to work on separate projects and
create a new comedy "wave" pre-
New
Labour: Morris went on to create
Brass
Eye,
Blue Jam and the
Chris Morris Music Show; Stewart Lee and Richard Herring
created
Fist of Fun and
This Morning with
Richard Not Judy.
Baynham was closely involved with both Morris' and Lee &
Herring's work — simultaneously at one point. Lee would go on to
co-write the controversial
Jerry Springer — The
Opera, but perhaps the most famous "alumnus" of this group
is
Steve Coogan's character
Alan Partridge, who first appeared in
On
the Hour, and has featured in multiple spin-off series.
The Armando Iannucci Shows
The Armando Iannucci
Shows was an eight-part series for Channel 4 broadcast in
2001. The series consisted of Iannucci pondering
pseudo-philosophical and jocular ideas and fantasies.
The Thick of It
More recently, Iannucci devised, directed and was chief writer of
The Thick of It, a
political satire-cum-farce for
BBC Four. It
starred
Chris Langham as an
incompetent cabinet minister being manipulated by a cynical Press
Officer, played by
Peter Capaldi and
based on
Tony Blair's former Press
Secretary
Alastair Campbell. It
was described by critics on
BBC Two's
Newsnight Review as a
modern-day counterpart to
Yes
Minister, which Iannucci had championed on the
BBC's
Britain's
Best Sitcom competition. He has also participated as a
panelist on
Radio
4's The News Quiz, having
produced the programme earlier in his career.
Time Trumpet
In Summer 2006, his spoof documentary series
Time Trumpet was shown on BBC 2. It
followed a similar format to his earlier one-off programmes in
looking back on past events through highly edited clips and
"celebrity" interviews, although this time was looking back on the
present and near-future from the year 2031. One notable episode,
featuring fictional terrorist attacks on London and the
assassination of Tony Blair, was postponed and edited in August
2006 amid the
terrorism
scares in British airports at that time. Jane Thynne, writing
in
The Independent, accused
the BBC of lacking backbone.
Advertisement director
He has also directed the latest series of
Post Office adverts, featuring the actors
John Henshaw,
Rory Jennings and
Di
Botcher alongside guest stars such as
Joan Collins,
Bill
Oddie and
Westlife.
He has appeared on Radio 3 talking about classical music, one of
his passions. He recently collaborated with composer
David Sawer on
Skin Deep, an
operetta, which was premiered by
Opera North on 16 January 2009.
In the Loop
In January 2009, his first feature film
In the Loop, in the style of
The
Thick of It, was premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival. It is the
first cinema film to be directed by Iannucci, after his
contribution to
Tube Tales in
1999. The film has been applauded by critics, both in Britain and
the US.The film secured the eighth highest placing in the UK box
office in its opening week - despite its relatively insignificant
screening numbers. According to the British Film Institute
screenonline, Iannucci had previously failed to
secure funding for a historical comedy film in 2003.
Iannucci
used his BBC press pass to enter the US State Department
headquarters whilst researching the film, saying
how he just turned up and claimed to be "here for the
12.30". Iannucci spent an hour inside taking photographs
which were used for the film's set designs.
Recognition
Iannucci has won two
Sony Radio
Awards and three
British
Comedy Awards. In 2003, he was listed in
The Observer as one of the 50 funniest
acts in British comedy. He was also subject of a 2006 edition of
The South Bank
Show.
Academic work
In January
2006 he took the post of News
International Visiting Professor of Broadcast Media at the
University of
Oxford
, where he has delivered a series of four lectures
under the title "British Comedy — Dead Or Alive?", saying in his
introduction to the series that "It used to be that you went to
Oxford to get into comedy. Now you get into comedy to go to
Oxford".
Personal life
In 1990, he married Rachael Jones. They have two sons and one
daughter.
Filmography
Television
- The Day Today (BBC 2 — creator, co-writer, producer plus occasional
appearances. The Day Today was the TV adaptation of On The Hour)
- The Saturday Night
Armistice (writer, producer, presenter etc. - later
The Friday Night Armistice)
- Knowing Me,
Knowing You... with Alan Partridge (co-writer, producer,
co-creator)
- I'm Alan Partridge
(co-writer, producer, director)
- The Armando Iannucci
Shows (writer, performer, director)
- Clinton: His
Struggle with Dirt (writer, director)
- Gash (writer, presenter)
- Have I Got News For
You, twice as a panelist on 23 April 2004 and 4 May
2007.
- The Thick of It
(writer, director)
- 2004: The Stupid
Version (Presenter, co-writer, director)
- Time Trumpet (writer,
presenter, director)
- Lab Rats (executive
producer)
- Stewart Lee's
Comedy Vehicle (executive producer, plus appears in
"Comedy Extra" segments on red button)
Radio
Film
Bibliography
Print
- Alan Partridge: Every Ruddy Word by Steve Coogan,
Peter Baynham, Armando Iannucci, Patrick Marber (Michael Joseph,
2003) ISBN 0-7181-4678-6
- Facts and Fancies (Michael Joseph, 1997) ISBN
0-7181-3951-8
- Weekly newspaper column in The
Observer
- The Audacity of Hype: Bewilderment, Sleaze and Other Tales
of the 21st Century (Little Brown, 2009) ISBN
978-1-4087-0197-3
Audiobooks
- Facts and Fancies (BBC Audiobooks, 1998) ISBN
0-563-55756-7
- I'm Alan Partridge: Knowing Me, Knowing Yule (BBC
Audiobooks, 1998) ISBN 0-563-55763-X
- Knowing Me, Knowing You...: With Alan Partridge: Complete
Series (BBC Audiobooks, 1995) CD ISBN 0-563-38896-X, cassette
ISBN 0-563-38891-9
References
- Armando Iannucci interview, 23 October,
2009
- MEDIA DIARY - The war on humour
- Joan Collins stars in Post Office ad | Media |
MediaGuardian
-
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/film_reviews/article5554802.ece
- The 50 funniest people in Britain (part two) |
Stage | The Observer
- University of Oxford, 2005. " Armando
Iannucci to lecture at Oxford on British comedy"
External links
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